The Observer view on Israel: only a ceasefire in Gaza can save it from its worst-ever crisis

Israel is embroiled in the gravest crisis since its founding as an independent state in 1948. The country has faced dire peril many times since then, but rarely, if ever, have the external and internal threats to its continued existence appeared so dangerous and pernicious. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have often been accused of lack of concern about civilian casualties, notably in the West Bank. But never has the toll of innocent lives been so intolerably high as in the war in Gaza, where more than 33,000 Palestinians have died in six apocalyptic months.

Israeli governments are frequently criticised by UN bodies and aid groups for disregarding human rights, UN security council resolutions and the laws of war. But never before has the country been accused before the world’s highest court of perpetrating genocide.

On Friday, the UN human rights council backed a call for Israel to be investigated for possible crimes against humanity in Gaza. The UN should also ensure that Hamas, which murdered nearly 1,200 Israelis on 7 October, is held to account.

It is not unusual for Israel, delegitimised and boycotted by its enemies for much of its history, to feel alone in the world. But the extent of the international condemnation and diplomatic ostracism to which it is now subjected is wholly unprecedented.

Even the US and Britain, stalwart friends, are appalled by its actions. Joe Biden, under growing pressure from his own party, felt obliged last week to condition continued American military aid on Israel’s immediate agreement to open some Gaza land crossings and improve humanitarian access before famine takes hold.

Meanwhile, Iran is vowing to take revenge for last week’s air strike on its embassy in Damascus, which killed senior commanders and for which it blames Israel. An attack could bring Iran into direct conflict with Israel for the first time since the war began, with alarming consequences.

If any one of these upheavals had occurred in isolation, it would be a serious matter. By their concurrent, linked nature, they pose a fundamental threat to Israel’s continued security and prosperity. They bring into question the integrity and cohesion of the state the Jewish people have striven so hard and successfully to establish.

For in addition to all these daunting difficulties, Israel faces another potentially shattering challenge. It is a house divided against itself. For many months, its society and politics have been riven by deep and furious schisms. A house divided cannot stand.

What is to be done, as Vladimir Lenin once asked. The allusion is not so inappropriate as it may seem, for if Israel is to survive and thrive, a revolution in its thinking, actions and self-perceptions is urgently required.

So let’s start at the top and work down. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only utterly failed to protect the country on 7 October, but his championing of oppressive, neo-colonialist policies towards the Palestinians over many years were a key contributing factor to that catastrophe. Netanyahu subsequently set the IDF an impossible task: to destroy Hamas. It has predictably failed to do so, and in the process turned Israel into a global pariah. Undisciplined, ill-directed IDF actions, so far unchecked, risk wider regional escalation. They require swift correction.

Netanyahu is a one-man disaster. He should resign immediately or be ousted by parliamentary vote or through early elections, as suggested by his possible replacement, Benny Gantz. At the same time, Israel must open every Gaza land crossing and allow full, unrestricted access for food aid, medicine and fuel without further delay. Likewise, Israel should cooperate with an independent, international inquiry into last week’s outrageous killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. The IDF’s internal investigation and its limited admission of error do not begin to excuse or explain the army’s trigger-happy behaviour and ongoing, systemic problems with targeting.

Israel must also comply with the recent UN security council resolution and implement an immediate ceasefire. It must stop the killing now. And it must accelerate good-faith negotiations, via resumed Arab mediation in Cairo this weekend, to free the remaining Israeli hostages through a prisoner swap.

New leadership in Israel must commit, as Netanyahu and his far-right coalition allies have refused to do, to serious discussion of how a postwar, Hamas-free Gaza will be governed. It must formally accept the linked reality that establishing a sovereign Palestinian state is the only sure means of assuring Israel’s long-term security. These will be painful decisions for many, but they are unavoidable. To ensure change happens, international pressure on Israel must be maintained and, if need be, intensified.

The US has the greatest leverage. It should suspend arms sales. Britain, too, should halt all military-related exports until it is satisfied Israel is honouring the ceasefire and no longer flouting international humanitarian law. Rishi Sunak’s failure to take this necessary step, despite the urgings of hundreds of top judges and lawyers and polling showing clear public support for an embargo, is shaming. It exposes, again, Sunak’s weakness when faced by rightwingers such as Suella Braverman and Boris Johnson.

Israel has a right to defend itself by all legitimate means. Yet if it is to survive this gravest of crises, sorely exacerbated by its own actions, it must listen to its friends, mend its ways and heal itself. No outside agent can do that on its behalf. Israelis must finally accept that securing their future cannot mean consigning another nation’s hopes to the past. They must understand that however great the hurt, and it was terrible, it does not justify causing even greater harm to others.

Now – to use the words of the assassinated peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin after he signed the Oslo peace accords in 1993 – the world is telling Israel: enough of blood and tears, enough!

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